#at least not until we have an excess of the resources they cost | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

starlightingsss · 9 months

Text

sparks fly (prologue!!)

you're on your own kid. 1

this is a haymitch x reader fic BUT this part is only the prologue / backstory of what happened to ur character (reader)!! you have a little sister named liriel, you're only depicted as 13 right now but you'll meet haymitch at 16, knowing him vaguely up until you are 18, where you get reaped for the games.

triggers in this chapter : weird old men harrassing an underaged girl (you), the girl giving into it for money, excessive alcohol / drug use, creepy old men in the hob

once upon a time, on a rainy day in a dirty, poor, coal filled district, the echos of laughter rang through the verh small, but very warm little house. echoes of laughter from a happy family, poor but happy. 2 toddlers, their mother, their father. better off than other families in their district, the tragedy that struck wasn't expected. her father had gone off to work, her mother heading out to forage for food - a pretty good way to cut down costs.

still young, she was unclear of what happened, even today the story is foggy. she remembered her dad coming back with a few peacemakers on his trail, how he sobbed as he held the two girls, telling them their mother had gone off to a better place. as they were about to ask questions, a loud boom rang through the two roomed shack as peacemakers filed in. shots fired, hitting her father straight in the head as she held her younger sister. the girls sobbed as she saw the body fall onto the floor, the peacemakers sparing their lives and turning back.

that was the day, the day her life changed, at just 13, y/n was forced to become a provider, the head of the household.

with tears in her eyes, she put her sister to sleep, promising everything would be ok. those tears continued to stream as she dragged her fathers bpdy out of the house, closer to the meadow, where she spent the latest hours in the night digging a grave. cold, and soaked to the bone, the young girl returned to her house, trying to answer the impossible question in her mind ... "how do we survive?"

too young to work, too kind to hunt the animals in the forest, the girl had only the money in her fathers pockets to survive off of.

as she pondered this, she realized she wasn't very much of anything, but she was beautiful. insanely beautiful, incomparably so. she seemed to glow brighter than the stars themselves, her hair a stunning shade of (black / brown / blonde), her (porcelain / olive / ebony) skin reflected the light beautifully, and her eyes, the crown jewel of her face. her eyes were the most luxurious shade of (brown/blue/green). her soft, captivating eyes stunned and entrapped almost everyone who looked at her. her features worked well together, leaving her looking ethereal. a beauty only compareable to that of the moon.

the girl spent her time in the meadow, just on the edge of the district but not far enough to be punished. she picked berries from bushes lining the faulty electric fence, she plucked dandelions from their roots, sometimes she was lucky and found wild potatoes or other root vegetables. her resourcefulness and smarts led her not needing to take out any tesserae in the future, efficiently cutting down the chances of her name being called.

as she walked back to the little shack she and her sister lived in, she felt content with what she had foraged that day. two handfuls of dandelions, three wild potatoes, a few spring onions and about a handful of strawberries. this was enough to keep her and her sister fed for at least a few days, they were both still younger and smaller and not as needing food as an adult. as she entered the shack, her little sisters sobs echoed out of the bedroom.

"liriel?" she said, entering the single bedroom in the shack. liriel was curled up, sobbing and delirious. the older girl wrapped her arms around her sister, "its ok, it'll be ok.", she pressed a kiss to the girls forehead, "i got some berries and stuff if you're hungry."

the younger girl shook her head no as she continued crying, her face resting on the older girls chest. she was at a loss of what to do, deciding just to hug her little sister, providing much needed comfort.

and that, that wad the older girl's last straw. the little bits of food they were forced to ration, almost nothing left. she avoided the hob - her dad told her to, he owned a stand there but he warned her of the men there and what they did to younger women like her.

she thought about it before realizing if she wanted to survive, she would at least have to trade / sell a little bit of stuff.

the next day quickly came, her anxiety peaked as she made the journey into the hob. she wasn't wearing anything out of the normal, just a small dress fitted to her form. but apparently, that wasn't really normal and she learned that as she entered the only bar in town, full of drunk men. the jobs over there were unregulated, no one really had any morals, and the owner would give her a good pay just for her to wait on the men.

as she walked into the bar, she stood out like a sore thumb. prim and proper, innocent and beautiful, blissfully unaware of why the pay was above average.

however, she quickly learned as the men caught sight of her, heads turning as words slurred out at her, "hey beautiful, come sit on my lap"s, "you woudl look nice with my cock in you"s, "you look like a whore"s, "dont tease me like that"s, and soom she had the whole bars attention on her, and hands reached out. rough hands grabbing at her wrists, her thighs, her waist, some even reaching out to touch her more intimate parts, as she rushed along to the front, trying to get away from them. the barmaid quickly ran over to her, yelling at the men and pulling her to the back.

"now tell me, little lady, whats a girl like you doing her dressed like that ?" she scolded, making sure the girl was ok.

she stuttered her response, "i-i was gonna ask to get a job .. as a waitress or something?". her hopeful eyes meeting the woman dark ones, awaiting a reply.

"those men are gonna eat you alive, hon. you sure you want a job?" the other woman inquired, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"yes please.. i really need the money." she pleaded this, with desperation leaking into her words.

soon after this, she had a job. in the middle of the hob, surrounded by men who just wanted to pig out on alcohol and food and the "pretty new thing that started working there". no one seemed to care that she was just 13, and she kept this job. for years, she kept this job. holding the men's attention and keeping their interest, she earned a lot of tips, making more than enough for her and her sister to live comfortably.

(sorry ab the timeskip but likeee!!)

this quickly changed, as a greedy man dragged her into the alley. his hands roaming her as she screamed for help, pleading for anyone to hear and stop. and someone did hear.

he heard her screams and stumbled closer to them, the cries for help ringing through his ears, as he neared the alleyway. he saw the woman pinned to a wall by a man as she thrashed against his arms and body, and she screamed. he sped up towards the pair, "what the hell is going on?" his gruff voice rang out.

the man assaulting her quickly turned his head, eyes landing on the man who just called out. fear lit the mans eyes as he saw haymitch abernathy, victor of the 50th hunger games, only victor in district 12 had apparently come to confront him about his assault on the woman. a quick excuse slipped out of his mouth, "hey man .. no need to start anything , s-she wanted this . shes not y-your girl is she?"

haymitch didn't look very strong, or very intimidating at that, but most people harbored a fear of him, a man who they saw kill over a dozen people in his games. fear of the man they thought was a killer.

"well im not sure she wanted it considering she was screaming so loud i heard her from the market but lets ask the lady herself, shall we? sweetheart, did you want this man to do whatever he was doing to you?" he said, he was drunk, not as drunk as the man who had her against the wall, but still drunk. he stumbled a little and slurred his words slightly.

the woman shook her head no, as haymitch neared the two. the man who had his hands around her dropped her to the ground, stumbling away from the girl as she fell to the floor. haymitch was now towering over her curled up body, as he leaned down, picking her up and placing her back onto her feet.

after giving the distressed woman some time to steady herself, he dropped his hands from her waist, where he had been supporting her.

"t-thank you.." she stuttered out, obviously shaken from the event just before.

"don't mention it, sweetheart. you ok? aside from all of that .. did he hit you or anything?" haymitch said, concerned for the girl.

"n-no, he was js grabbing" she said, fear of what the guy could've done had haymitch not intervened still rattling her core. she let out a "i-im gonna go home now .." as she stumbled away.

"ehhh, not sure about that one, hon. you're pretty shaken up." he said this, following her. "just let me walk you home, ok? just wanna make sure you're ok." it made sense, knowing the traumatic even that just happened to her, letting her wander home wasn't a very good idea.

"o-ok" she said this, as she continued to stumble, this time just not by herself.

the walk was mostly silent as they were both necessarily strangers to each other, haymitch had just wanted to ensure the girl's safety, and thankfully, her shack was pretty close to the hob. after she thanked him, and sent him off to continue his errands, she collapsed onto her and her sisters shared bed. the younger girl was at school, and her body was tired and stressed.

her thoughts raced with what could've happened had the former victor not interfered, if she hadn't screamed. she realized her job wasn't safe for her, but she was still unsure what she could do. only men could work in the mines, she didnt have a business or the money to start one, she had a few hundred dollars to her name. as her thoughts wandered, she decided to do something that would take her mind off the matter - she would prepare a "thank you!" basket for the man who saved her.

she looked through the pantry, finding the ingredients for her to make fresh bread. as she made the dough and set it aside to rise overnight, she looked for some jam to add to the basket. she knew she had something and eventually found some strawberry jam! she went out and picked some prettier flowers, added a jar of the jam, and included a small piece of goats milk cheese from her little sister's goat.

her sister came home, seeing the basket on the table, with her curiosity peaked, "y/n? whats this on the table? whos it for?"

"liri, your back! its just a basket for someone who was kind to me, just returning the favor." she said this, not wanting to burden her sister, just to finish the basket and deliver it the next day.

she went to sleep that night excited to send over the basket, and she woke at the crack of dawn to put the bread in the oven. once the bread was done, she wrapped it up in paper and rested it into the basket. her sister went off the school again, and she made the lengthy walk over to the victors village.

as she rang the doorbell, her excitement was hard to contain. excitement that was not matched by the grumpy man who opened the door, with bags under his eyes and a very disgruntled look on his face, she realized she had probably just woken him up.

"hi! i made this basket to thank you for helping me .. i'm so sorry to bother! i didn't mean to wake you" she chirped, apologetic but her excitement and happiness still leaking into her voice.

he flashed a smile at her as he took the basket from her hands, seeing the bread, jam, cheese and flowers that she had prepared. the contents of the basket all costing quite a bit. "you made all this stuff?" he said this, still groggy and not very awake.

"yep! baked the bread this morning, the jam was a little older from some strawberries i foraged and the cheese is from my sisters goats milk!" she said this, with a smile still on her face.

the man muttered something along the lines of "guess i dont mind if i a pretty girl wakes me up after all" as he turned back into his house to place the basket somewhere on a table, calling out a "come in if you want" to her.

the woman cautiously stepped into the house, getting hit in the face with the stench of old alcohol and sweat. the house was a mess, huge and cluttered up with bottles and dishes - how the man functioned wasnt even something plausible in her mind. as she reached the room he was in, she saw him pouring himself a drink.

"isn't it a little early to be drinking?" she said this, concern etched onto her face as she observed the man. 8 in the morning on a thursday and he already had a glass of white liquor poured in front of him.

"not sure what you'd expect after waking me up at 8 in the morning, sweetheart." he replied, sitting down and sipping his drink. she stood out against the messy background of his house, her hair and clothes seemingly perfect. her skin still glowy in the dark atmosphere of the room.

"ehh.. could i maybe .. clean your house for you?" she said this, as she saw a spide crawl across the wall above the sink. knowing this wasn't a place anyone should be living in, she just wanted to help the man.

haymitch looked around as he sipped his drink, "t's fine, dont worry about it, you got anything else you wanna do or judt the basket?" he said looking up.

"i- it was just the basket , ill get going" she said this as she turned around and left, some of the smell lingering on her body. she wanted to help him - she really did but she wasn't going to force her help onto him.

HELP IK THIS STORY IS A LITTLE PROBLEMATIC / QUESTIONABLE RN BUT I SWEAR NTH ROMANTIC IS HAPPENING BETWEEN THEM

DHISDHSKHDS THEY FALL IN LOVE AFTER HER GAMES N STUFF BUT BEFORE THEM HE JS THOUGHT SHE WWS SOME RANDOM PRETTY GIRL 😭

he'll still be hesitant after her games n wtvs tho pls 😭 theres still a gap between like them doing anything and stuff

bte her birthday is right after the reaping (a few days after) and she gets reaped at 18 so she turned 19 before all the interview n everything then she survives based in dumb luck n stuff

idk how to tag but someone asked me to tag so this is like a little confusing for me

idk how to use tumblr

47 notes · View notes

folatefangirl · 11 months

Text

Haven't seen one of these floating around for the recent MTAP tag but here's some gameplay tips I've picked up as a newbie who picked this up while it was 80% off on steam. I was mega stressed early on due to not knowing things and would be happy to pass on advice to save others the stress:

1. Reddit is good for advice and tumblr is penalizing me for links so yeah. Use the reddit community and/or wiki when stuck. Link to a decent set of advice is in the replies to this post.

2. Repair your workshop as soon as possible bc you'll wake up with low stamina daily until that gets done. Doesn't take more than like 30ish or so pieces of wood.

3. Yep the advice to make more than one machine is correct. Even for the blender. Maybe not the cooking setup or basic skiver per se. Yes, this will use up resources and space. Use the For Sale sign to expand space (or be like me and try to cram a level 2 house into a space too small for it 😅).

4. In the small planter boxes, grow lettuce, cotton, and wheat as much as possible if you can. You can also grow other things, but these seem to be the most helpful for feeding mounts and skiver crafting. Large boxes are for the special giant seeds and you can get the box from the church store and seeds from the Mysterious Man. Fertilize often to have the best shot at winning the Autumn Festival!

5. No, you can't have a rival romance with Higgins, tragically. But you can spar and body block him and chat to him until 9 AM to prevent him from taking commissions, especially the fancy valuable ones. I'm currently chill with being at rank 2 in my first year so I don't bother yet. I still think we should be allowed to woo him. As a treat. And mechanic to make him nicer 😅. Btw once he scams you (you'll know when) talk to him as soon as possible after and you can at least guilt him into giving you money.

6. No seriously do use Gust's shop in A&G to swap for 999 wood and keep furnaces running. You'll get wayyy too much stone from mining and the first quarry only gives so much marble for stone tables to sell en masse when the market is up. Other quarries are annoying to get to in the early game. Use the excess for wood first, then making stone bricks or stone tools etc to sell or whatever. Go wild. I make excess glass to sell since it's more profitable than raw resource selling, yep even with the wood cost. Still haven't figured out how to make excess soil more profitable besides planter boxes.

7. If you don't wanna feel like a monster for killing llamas for their worn fur, you can totally kill panbats. I like all the critters so I feel like a monster regardless 🥴. Kinda has to be done for certain quests and quest items tho.

8. Make allll the Dee-Dee Stops you can for the spots marked on the map. You can also have your mount follow you to the next stop.

9. Bring or make stamina repletion food when mining, esp if you have the game speed slowed down and don't run to the Round Table to replete (you have a limited number of things you can eat and can only eat once daily... Or you could try sitting for an hour if you aren't like me and it won't drive you crazy to sit and do nothing).

10. Annoying timed storyline quest needed items that you can collect earlier while the main story has no time limit for progression per se: pretty much all ores/ore products and special mining items like valves and engines, wild cocoons, ironwood (more than you think), bat wings, bamboo papaya, information discs (I keep the extra beyond the ones I give Petra for research in general for the storyline quest diagrams; I can complete the relics later), knight badges from the Round Table (minimum 250 of them), old parts, crystal necklace x1, dog food x1, soap x1, wildflower bouquet from Alice x1, tempering fluid, copper and steel wire, steel planks, welding rods. Can't think of the other ones that were super urgent and non-commission board rn as of Winter 1st (my latest stopping point) but yeah this is totally a hoarding game.

11. P.S. To get into the hazardous ruins area as a lower level, literally just dodge and run for 60 seconds. Do a hit if you feel brave. Yes, it's cowardly but it totally works and unlocks neat stuff you really need for certain quests. You can kick their asses later.

12. The worst that can happen if you die is that you get warped back home. Same for passing out at 3 AM but without the health depletion. Use that knowledge for what you will. I've noticed in boss battles it just bumps me back to the start of the battle with full health and stamina so I only get warped back further in other situations.

That's all I have for now but I may add more as I play. Hope this helps!

#cinnia writes things #cinnia makes things #gaming #my time at portia #mtap #gaming advice #long post

15 notes · View notes

mogodogo2nd · 2 months

Text

Shameless repost from my reddit(how to turn kenshi into a utopia)

I love harsh and bleak worlds, especially ones I can change, because I have an "I can fix her" sort of mentality with those types of games, and find that sort of fantasizing very interesting. So, I decided to write up a plan to turn Kenshi into (somewhat) of a utopia. So without further ado, here is my multi-stage plan to (unethically) turn Kenshi into a utopia.Oh also, this is impossible to do in game.

Step One: Ally with the Shek.

The Shek may be a somewhat genocidal ethnostate, but they are the least bad of the three major factions in my opinion, and may cooperate with the plan, and if they don't, we can take control of their government fairly easily by challenging Esata to a battle and having Cyber Beep wreck their ass.

Step Two: Assassinate Holy Lord Phoenix, and imprison the high inquisitors(for their knowledge of the holy nation) and take control of the holy nation

The holy nation may not cooperate, but the shek are strong enough to distract the holy nation, and the anti-slavers and mercs can be used to quell rebellions. It is imperative to keep their mining equipment and farming equipment, and to minimize the casualties, though. We will immediately stop the war in the United Cities, and give them their dumbass land.

Step Three: Start slowly freeing slaves and discouraging discriminationWe can't shock the holy nation into a slaveless and diverse nation, we will have to slowly start passing laws around slavery until slaves can't be abused as much, and enough laws around discrimination so that a hiver can't just be enslaved for the crime of existing around stack. Also, once non-humans and women have rights and can work, so efficiency of the farms will increase quite a bit.

Step Four: Tear down the statue of Holy Lord Phoenix and free the slaves of rebirth

This may seem like a stupid decision, but to my knowledge, the only thing rebirth slaves do to my knowledge is build a big-ass statue and waste precious resources.

Step Five: Use the Resources from Rebirth to Encourage People to build farms

By giving people who start up farms tax cuts and free resources from the ruins of rebirth, we can get a lot of excess food, and also have less of a need for slaves, as well as giving jobs to people, so we won't have massive hordes of hungry bandits killing people and stealing their food.

Step Six: Settle in Shem

This will just boost the amounts of food and other resources we can produce massively, and will also make traveling shem a lot safer.

Step Seven: Start sell large amounts of food to the UC

Since we have an excess of food from our other exploits, we can most likely undercut the prices of the food produced by the UC, giving us plenty of cats in the process.

Step Eight: Build Outposts outside of the hiver villages.

This may seem stupid, but we can give lost hivers a place to stay, and also plenty of free labor and soldiers, which will come in handy later.

Step Nine: Wait for the UC to put tariffs on imports

Because we are undercutting the cost of food produced by the UC, the UC will probably start putting tariffs on imports, which may seem bad, but...

Step Ten: Use the tariffs as an excuse to go to war

At this point, we will be more powerful than the UC, with the more powerful holy nation and the shek kingdom on our side, and we can start a war with the UC.

Step Eleven: Assassinate Emperor Tengu and install a puppet governor

Little did Tengu know, but there was a skeleton crossbowman who had been waiting above his throne room for him to declare war, and immediately JFK his ass the second he does. The person who replaces Tengu will be a spy from our side, and will immediately surrender.

Step Twelve: Launch attacks against the slaver work camp

The combined forces of the three biggest factions will spell death for the slavers.

Step Thirteen: Abolish Slavery and make being poor legal again

Rather self explanatory, isn't it? Dissenters will be few and far between, due to the large amounts of freed slaves.

Step Fourteen: Reintroduce Garrus, Beak things, and Gorillos into the Cannibal Plains

Cannibalism is not a sustainable practice, as diseases can spread much quicker through eating people, and is therefore biologically discouraged. The cannibals would much rather eat animals than people, as it's coded in their DNA, and once they start eating animals, they probably will stop eating people. Also, release cleaner units to de-toxicify the land(read step 16-17).

Step Fifteen: Make peace with both hives

Maybe by a gift, or by new robot guard, but the hives can probably be satisfied with relative ease, which will come in handy later.

Step Sixteen: Kidnap a bunch of cleaning units from the ashlands

Hear me out, also it's not that hard because we allied with the southern hive

Step Seventeen: Make the machines work

They will start cleaning the southern portion, and make the land more hospitable to life besides landbats, and also make more of them to clean up the rest of kenshi.

Step Seventeen: Do Shenanigans in the foglands

Basically set up a wall around it, as well as killing all the fogmen in it, so the fog islands will be safe to settle in. It may be a genocide, but they are literally bipedal animals at that point. If they can be cured, cure them instead, but they probably can't. Also, make friends with mongrel.

Step Eighteen: End the Reavers

I hate them, send them into the same peeler with Savant

Step Nineteen: legalize hash to improve relations with the swamp people

And maybe kill off a couple rogue bandit groups. You can also start settling there for free meat and farmland.

Step Twenty: Bask in your (sort of) Utopia, where food is readily available from the reformed Holy Nation, the United Cities(fish) and other things from the swamp. We have plenty of other resources from mines in the Holy Nation, (and mines elsewhere). We also have plenty of manpower, and can easily destroy any rogue bandit groups. After this, we can start to socially reform the nation(s) we control, and are basically on top of the world.

Edit: Apparently Tengu is already a puppet, take control of the trader's guild and nobles, I'll elaborate further later.

Comment if I missed anything, I apologize in advance for the spelling and grammar errors.

#kenshi #utopia #fanfic #not really #essay #essay writing #beep

1 note · View note

carsononeill40 · 4 months

Text

When Is the Ideal Time to Pack Prevalent Domestic Objects?

When it will come to transferring, packing can be a person of the most daunting jobs. From deciding what to pack first to figuring out how to arrange almost everything, it can swiftly develop into frustrating. Just one question that usually comes up is: When is the best time to pack common residence merchandise? In this site post, we will investigate some suggestions and pointers to assistance you decide the ideal time to begin packing. 1. Program Ahead The essential to a prosperous move is proper setting up. Begin by making a going timeline and established a day for your transfer. Once you have a obvious strategy of when you require to be out of your latest dwelling, you can operate backward to determine when to start packing. Typically, it really is recommended to commence packing non-essential items at least a number of weeks prior to your shift. This features merchandise that you really don't use on a everyday foundation, such as seasonal garments, textbooks, and decorations. By packing these products early on, you can cut down the quantity of previous-minute stress and guarantee a smoother shifting process. two. Pack Area by Place Another efficient system is to pack space by area. This strategy enables you to keep structured and helps make unpacking much easier as soon as you arrive at your new household. Start off with rooms that are much less often applied, such as visitor bedrooms or storage locations. As you pack, be positive to label each box with its contents and the area it belongs to. This will save you time and effort and hard work when unpacking later on on. On top of that, take into account producing an inventory record to hold observe of your possessions and ensure very little gets shed for the duration of the transfer. 3. Look at Your Day-to-day Needs Although it is significant to start packing early, you must also think about your daily demands. As your shifting day ways, target on packing goods that you won't want on a regular basis. For case in point, if you're going during the summer season, you can pack your wintertime outfits and gear perfectly in progress. On the other hand, there are specific things that you can expect to will need until the previous moment. Packers and Movers Kolkata to Dehradun Cost involve toiletries, a handful of alterations of garments, and essential kitchen things. Keep a different box or suitcase for these merchandise and pack them ideal before you go. This way, you will have all the things you want quickly readily available right up until the incredibly close. 4. Search for Experienced Help If you might be emotion overwhelmed or just never have the time to pack, consider employing professional packers. They have the knowledge and practical experience to competently pack your belongings, making sure that almost everything is adequately protected for the shift. Professional packers can also deliver you with going supplies, these types of as packing containers, packing resources, and labels. This can conserve you time and work, as you will not have to worry about sourcing these objects your self. 5. Be Conscious of Fragile Items When packing fragile things, it can be important to choose excess care. Start off by collecting the needed packing supplies, these as bubble wrap, packing paper, and sturdy packing containers. Wrap each and every fragile product independently and position them in packing containers with sufficient cushioning to prevent any problems in the course of transit. It is really highly recommended to pack fragile merchandise nearer to your go date, as you can expect to want to minimize the time they devote in boxes. Nonetheless, if you have a significant number of fragile goods, you may perhaps require to start off packing them earlier to guarantee you have more than enough time to pack them all properly. Summary Packing popular residence products can be a time-consuming endeavor, but with proper setting up and organization, it can be additional workable. Begin by creating a going timeline and pack non-critical things well in progress. Remember to pack space by place, looking at your daily desires and fragile things. If needed, will not be reluctant to seek skilled assist. By next these pointers, you are going to be perfectly on your way to a productive and strain-free go.

#Packers and Movers #Packers and Movers Cost #Packers and Movers Charges

1 note · View note

vistaconcepts · 1 year

Text

Educational and Inspiring Advantages of Artificial Garden Walls

Artificial plants may fail to provide some natural advantages that are associated with their counterparts but if they are becoming increasingly popular today, it’s because they allow their exponents to save considerably on both time and resources besides looking attractive.

Those who maintain a natural garden and grow houseplants will tell you about the amount of time and money that this practice demands. The opposite happens in the case of artificial gardening, which also enables you to counter the weather factor effectively. Whatever be the weather, your artificial greenery will sport the same look. Little wonder then that artificial green wall systems in Australia are now becoming increasingly popular.

Below, we have expanded on the educational and inspiring advantages of artificial garden walls:

1. Impossible to destroy

One specialty of artificial plants is they can’t be easily destroyed and nor can they simply be damaged. Some factors that prove fatal for natural plants such as less or too much watering, little or excessive exposure to the sun or not transferring them to a larger pot when the need arises won’t trouble you when you opt for artificial plants, which you need to order just once and keep using until they start to wear out.

2. Your absence will not make any difference

When you go somewhere, your absence won’t really matter as your artificial plants will be the same as they are. Those who cultivate natural plants are required to make another arrangement when they are away and often they have to pay for it. This can be avoided when you turn to artificial gardening.

3. No need for manure, pesticides and earth

Manure, pesticides and soil do not come for free and putting them to use takes up a good amount of time and effort. Using fertilisers and pesticides is a little hazardous as well as they are capable of harming kids and animals.

Artificial plants need none of the above, meaning you can conserve your precious time and resources and steer clear of health risks.

4. Water preservation

Water is one of those natural resources that begs for preservation. And when there are artificial plants in your commercial property, you will be exempted from the use of gallons of water that natural plants end up consuming in the course of their maintenance.

Natural plants will not survive for long if they aren’t fed water from time to time whereas artificial plants do not have any such dependency on water.

5. Time no less significant than money

For those eking out a living in big cities, often time and money are virtually equal. And if something ends up saving their valuable time, it will not be wrong to equate it with cost saving. And this is exactly what artificial gardening is known to do. When your time is not spent on digging the soil, giving water to plants, using composts and insect killers and trimming leaves, you can utilise the same on more important tasks that will be more gratifying.

6. Low-cost and storable

As if the maintenance of natural plants didn’t already make one fidgety, you also have to take into account their cost, which is anything but low, and the hassle they give when they have to be shifted or disposed of. When you go for an artificial garden, you will not have to fret over the two aforementioned issues. Artificial plants are seldom too costly and storing them is a breeze as you simply need to transfer them in a large container and need not do anything else.

7. Ultimate for place of work

We here it often that a workspace should have at least a little bit of greenery, which enables employees to increase their productivity. Artificial plants allow you to address this need much faster without having to worry too much about maintenance, cleaning or replacing the pots with the passage of time.

If your venture is based in Australia, you can easily find Australia’s leading supplier of artificial green walls that sends shipments all over the country and free at that. When faced with the requirement for artificial green walls in Australia or any green wall systems, you can contact this dealer and once you are convinced after seeing their past projects, you can allow them to tend to your need as well.

#Green Living Wall Suppliers #Living Plant Wall Systems #Living Green Walls & Vertical Garden Suppliers in Brisbane #Realistic Artificial Vertical Garden Wall Plants in Australia #Green Walls Living Plant Systems #vertical garden supplier

0 notes

danadriel · 1 year

Text

"Our journey in the so called fertile plains weren't exactly what I expected, we arrived during a quite tumultuous time were multiple factions are trying to conquer the Neo-Beletiahn territories, making this "verdant" place remarkably violent, after leaving the capital we got ambushed at least 7 times by the Remnant Legion, these cowards don't have the fiber to assault us head on so they try to bleed us,attacking us and fleeing everyday in the hopes of a victory by attrition… although utterly coward this tactic it was working, we lost several of our crew members , and many became too wounded and sick to fight as the days passed, we only survived by sheer luck,days later we stumbled upon a large settlement in the border, with hangar bays big enough for our ship,this safe haven gave us the opportunity to lick our wounds and weld our steel,after several days evaluating the damages on our ship me and Quartermaster Tareek concluded that the repair costs would be immense, and the worst part is that in this territory,people don't use any form of formal currency, so we would have to bargain for everything!at this point we had two options, scrap the ship disband the crew and adventure is over, or work for the townsfolk until we can repair our vessel,surprisingly everyone in our crew voted to do whatever we can to repair the Dawnstrider, so we took jobs all over the place to get resources, Tareek bartered our excess loot, Zagor and Danadriel sold their mercenary services, I repaired all sorts of old machines in the port and so on.

Our cooperative work worked marvelously, and bit by bit the ship was being repaired and even upgrade in some places… but I cant deny that this period was remarkably boring, after months of exploration, fights and deadly pursuits in the desert, the idea of spending all day repairing old engines on a pier gets considerably less interesting, I tried to find other ways to distract me during my mundane work, eventually I began to observe the life of people who inhabit the port surroundings,I not proud of being a pigeon eye, but the daily occurrences of a large port are undeniably endearing, how many fights, dramas, accidents I witnessed, but the weirdest of ocurrencies I witnessed was involving a notorious member of our crew, there was a large tavern by the side of our dock, it was ran by Lady Felishia the matriarch of a huge family a lovely woman, Danadriel used to frequent this tavern to read cards for patrons and enjoy some beer mugs, one night I particular I saw Danadriel and Lady Felishia kissing in the alley on the side of the tavern, she had an eerie yellow glow in her eyes, it startled me!

I don't usually worry about the romantic life other crew members but that was odd, I would expect it from Tareek, not Danadriel, contrary to what his appearance may suggest Danadriel is not a seductive type of person, its rare to see he even interacting with people in our own crew let alone outsiders, even when doing his readings he speaks as little as possible, and not just that he also has an supernatural aura that chills the spine of most, not an approachable type by any means…after that I decided to keep one eye on him, as the weeks passed they kept meeting, and after that more and more ladies were involved, all of them when approaching him got that strange yellow glow in their eyes, they were all meeting in a back room in the tavern, curiosity overtook my better judgment and I sneaked in to discover more, I've never been a master spy in my youth and ever worse now that I'm fat and old, but I managed to find a good spot to observe.Once inside I was already expecting to see some sort of obscenity but what I saw surprised me even more, they were indeed having a unholy carnal meeting but not in a way I expected, Danadriel was mating with those women in some ritualistic way, while he penetrated one all the others sung some sort of chant while holding hands, after mating with all of them they all hugged and prayed together, definitively not the usual infidelity case…

In the following months they met almost regularly, and with shame I admit I watched their meetings as much as I could, as expected all of those women began to show clear signs of pregnancy, during the day I saw the many interactions of that neighborhood, everyone was so gleefully congratulating the expecting mothers, but they had no idea of the full story, they were all married woman and no one other than me knew the truth!? during their night meetings they spoke a lot and they all sounded so proud of their infidelity, at first it revolted me…but after that it began to evoke some obscene desires in my mind, and even paranoia, what was my wife doing while I was spending my night spying on Danadriel!? part of me wished to run back to the ship and check on her, but my voyeuristic adventure hooked me way too much at this point.

One night in particular I was on my usual spying spot expecting Danadriel to leave the ship for another night with his breeding cult, but I was surprised by him whispering in my ear "I know you have been watching me doctor, and I don't like it very much…" my blood froze, I stood quiet until I could recompose myself, then I turned to him and said "Yes Danadriel, I know all about your night escapades, Ive been watching you, and I'm worrying about your intentions, what sort of otherworldly witchcraft you did with those ladies!?" In that moment I was genuinely fearing for my life, Danadriel is impulsive and quick to anger, I've seen he kill other crewmates for way less than it so I was already discreetly trying to reach my revolver as I spoke, but then he calmly replied:

If you so concerned why didn't you told anyone? you could ratted me months ago, but instead you just kept spying on me and watching the show…

I'm not the one in the wrong here! you are the one lying with married women.

Yeah…and you are the weirdo in the corner watching everything while rubbing your rod…

Thats…that's preposterous! a-and also irrelevant!

Cut me a slack doctor… I'm thankful you didn't ratted me to our captain, so I will not ratt you to your wife, and also I will let you watch us again, I can even arrange a little pillow so you can sit and watch with some comfort.

Are you trying to bribe me with such obscene offer!?

Yes…and please be honest you want it…

I would never agree with such vile and….y-yes I want, we have a deal…but at least tell me, what are you actually doing to them? are those mothers going be fine?

Yes they will, don't worry, I'm not doing anything nefarious, I just nesting a little, having fun, cuddles and making babies….

With our obscene deal sealed the routine continued, but now I was allowed to watch from a more comfortable position, without the worry of being sneaky I could pay more attention to what was happening and my own reactions to it, at first glance I imagined Danadriel had some grand and horrifying plan with those women, but now I don't think he has a real conscious purpose, he just finds pleasure in the idea of spreading his seed…his corruption… but I still don't comprehend the supernatural method behind it so I will not vow for his innocence yet.at first I thought I was just aroused by their sexual activities, but now I know I envy way more their passionate caresses, they nest on each other like a litter of cubs, Danadriel is always cuddling them in such a passionate and tender way…something I'm not having with my wife for quite a while, we may have survived the end of the world but our flame is definetively dwindling.

After months of work our ship has finally fixed, supplied and ready to depart, I was longing for the road and now we were back in to action, the last meet of Danadriel's small cult was so heartbreaking, we clearly would never return to that town, so he was saying his last goodbyes and blessing his ladies, I wish I had some way to record that moment, I never seen such touching and sincere combination of words, it was better than any romantic movie I had seen in the old Valencii cinemas.

By the morning we were already crossing the desert at full sail, as usual me and Danadriel were in the the upper deck with Captain Clutch assisting in navigation, when my wife came to talk to me , she was in such a good mood and eager to discuss ome projects she had in mind, while we talked , Danadriel sneaked behind her and discretly sniffed her neck, I was outraged by that , by I waited for her to leave to insult him, but before I could say anything he looked at me with a worried face and said "Doctor I dont want to raise alarm but…I think another bird laid an egg on your nest." took me few seconds to get what he was saying…I think perhaps its time to put my questionable spying skills to work again…this time with my wife." (Doctor Kalgory)

omg romance and drama in the sand boat! D8

ok if the next chapters of this sound goofy as fuck it's because i'm not a writer for love stories XD

#furry #art #pregnant #pregnancy #pregfur #pregnancy kink #mind control #queer

1 note · View note

carvolthdentistry · 1 year

Text

How to Find a Reputable, Affordable Dentist

In any case, getting your tooth extracted would be quite expensive in today's fast-paced world where everything is paid for. Because of this, dental care is frequently one of the few essentials to forgo when faced with financial constraints. Many participants agreed that acquiring beautiful teeth would work, and they don't view rotting teeth as a concern unless they are aggravating right now and incredibly challenging. Looking for a Local Affordable Dentist near me? Affordable dental care is available at Carvolthdentistry.ca. In order to meet all of your oral health needs, we are delighted to provide some of the most cutting-edge technologies in the dental sector.

Currently, affordable dental plans are difficult to find, particularly if you don't have the necessary insurance. That is why many people put off visiting the dentist until it is almost too late or too late. Despite the fact that this is most likely the case, a cheap dental professional is not always linked to appalling assistance. The main objective of this is to obtain dental protection coverage to pay for your expenses, so you won't have to spend excessively on the upkeep of your teeth. Browsing a Dental Office open on Sunday? Carvolthdentistry.ca is here to assist you. In order to satisfy your needs, we provide a range of dental services. We provide cleanings, fillings, crowns and bridges, veneers, wisdom teeth extractions, sedation, dental implants, and dentures.

People who don't qualify for dental insurance are sometimes given access to affordable dental specialists. This facility offers comprehensive dental examinations and treatments, including cleanings, fluoride treatments, root canals, extractions, sealants, fillings, and many treatments. Looking for emergency dental care for broken teeth? A great online resource, Carvolthdentistry.ca provides a broad selection of dental care services to suit your needs. Our team comprises patient-focused and compassionate dentists, hygienists, and staff members.

Some universities also permit their third and fourth-year students to gain practical experience and training in dental care, enabling them to conduct oral examinations on victims while being closely supervised by licenced dental professionals. The cost of dental care provided by such trainee dental specialists is only half that of visiting a regular dental specialist. Others wouldn't even think of entrusting their dental care to mere understudies, thus they would rather forgo visiting a dental specialist than take advantage of the reduced cost. A suitable dental prosperity framework is offered by a dental wellness center in Columbia to those who are dealing with bodily, local, and mental disabilities. To be eligible, one must be at least 21 years old and partner with established organizations of adults with disabilities. Are you Looking to find a Langley dentist who offers single tooth implant surgery Langley? With Carvolth Dentistry, you're covered. We are a dental practice that focuses on implant dentistry and can assist you in regaining your smile.

Without the advice of dental protection inclusion, one might hardly anticipate profiting off such economically for dental administrations like dental embed, brightening, porcelain facade, decorates, and on-lays that require uncertain strategies and a very skilled corrective dental specialist. The majority of the time, low-cost dental specialist plans don't apply to this form of dental work, which must instead be financially pre-arranged or covered by an associated insurance inclusion.

Visit our social media link-

Facebook

Instagram

0 notes

harmondolan7 · 2 years

Text

Four Super-Deadly Marketing Sins - And The Way Fix Them

So you've got this great new camera. Now you're standing in front a display in excess of film you've got ever spotted. All you want to do is take some great family photos anyone don't know where commence. Here's short guide to help you started. But there's still a significant population of non-customers who didn't reply to your regular advertising. Most have not seen it yet .and people that have usually need discover it numerous times before they will respond. Look your best and submit a great photo of yourself with your profile opportunity. A good picture really may be a thousand words, and research points too you are nearly significantly more likely to be noticed if you post a picture to your profile. Somebody pays a great deal of money for their ticket notice them perform and ends up being undergo a political opinion from someone who makes sums of money a year but don't have a real job, have a lack of to dwell in reality and won't have an idea about actuality! Yeah, right, identify about your political views while I'm sitting here waiting with regard to entertained by you. That's why I came here all of the what I paid for isn't it, you ungrateful clueless tech-leery. You want to spout off, do it for costless. Yes, free. Why don't you perform at no cost then specialists . say anything to your audience. Then it's fair and balanced. Then a audience gets what its ok for. Soon, this became the norm, not the different. There were constant problems at my houses. Unhappy tenants took poor repair off the property and substantially maintenance challenges activatedlink . About one year, after Got amassed 26 houses, I got it having problems with roughly 10-15 houses and/or tenants 7 days. I was evicting at least two tenants each month, and approximately four to seven tenants were either behind on rent or paying whatsoever. Promises were made, payment plans arranged and few, if any, ever followed through. Everyday wounds are those hurts that present themselves to us on an every day basis through our relationships and interactions folks and stick to us until they are addressed subsequently healed. light image resizer crack license key are presented with situations that could develop into wounds or contribute for your growth to be a Higher Ground Human. It all depends on what we settle on. Here include the five most commonly (and embarrassing) grammar mistakes I see in sales letters every single. And they're all for words that sound alike, as you'll see. In conclusion: Depending with regards to your level of skin sensitivity or pain toleration, texture of hair and rate of hair growth, waxing hair removal may be a viable choice for you. View links inside resource box for suggestions on the steps to make the results last longer and to look at a good supplier to get a huge array of the latest waxing solutions and products.

#ACTIVATEDLINK

1 note · View note

o-wyrmlight · 2 years

Note

hello hopefully i’m not too late to the shipping asks thingy, i’m curious to know your opinion on hollyberry x cacao

All right, so let's take a look at Hollyberry and Dark Cacao for a hot minute, because up until a few days ago, I probably wouldn't have considered it all too much.

King. Queen. Each of different kingdoms. Each of kingdoms that are--quite literally--diametrically opposed to each other.

Let's take a look at Dark Cacao's kingdom, first of all. It's a kingdom that relies upon frugality and abstinence from most of life's pleasures in order to find the means to survive. This is a kingdom of warriors, born and raised to face off against the hostile and hungry wildlife of a frigid tundra fraught with dangers around every corner. I doubt that there is very much spare food to go around. I very much suspect that a large part of why sweets are forbidden following the first hunt of a creamwolf is because the resources there provide far more bitter resources than sweet. And Dark Cacao himself has raised his kingdom to be strong, filled with a determination to succeed and protect them at any cost necessary. They are isolated and cold, but honorable and proud.

And now. Look at Hollyberry Kingdom. Filled with life and jubilation, passionate parties, balls and dances with music that can play the night away. Hollyberry Kingdom is much unlike Dark Cacao Kingdom--here, everything is in excess, allowing room for passion to blossom forth like an overgrown vine. Hollyberry herself is a very passionate cookie who revels in the hedonistic pleasures of life--good drink, good music, good dance. Friends, family, fighting. Everything she does, she does out of love.

So, we know their kingdoms. We know their differences. Now, my friend, tell me. With how diametric these two cookies' kingdoms are, with how much their respective kingdom is reflected in their personalities--how can you possibly find enough common ground to ship them?

...

Let's look at their differences again. Let's look at their storylines in-game, and decipher how their personalities come to light further.

Hollyberry Kingdom was abandoned by their queen. She felt such great shame in what she did--or rather, failed to do--that she fled her kingdom and went into hiding, too absorbed in her self-blame for having failed to protect her friends. If she couldn't protect her friends, then how could she expect to protect her kingdom? It's very irresponsible in a sense, but also understandable. She is a queen who can hold her own one-on-one with Pitaya Dragon Cookie, so I'm sure she's had this view of herself as powerful for a long time. Or at the very least, powerful enough. And yet she wasn't when Dark Enchantress Cookie ended the Dark Flour War so catastrophically.

And Dark Cacao. Ah, Dark Cacao. How ashamed he must have been of having failed to protect his companions, his--I'm sure he saw them all as friends, somewhere deep down, though I doubt he ever actually said it aloud. He's a cookie who strives to protect his own kingdom by any means necessary, and after the desolation that was the Dark Flour War--after his companions disappeared--after his very own son nearly killed him... he took the other approach. He isolated himself within his own kingdom instead of running away, he dedicated potential years of his life to a siege on the Great Chocolate Wall that he might not have even been sure would ever actually happen--

He left his kingdom to rot away with him inside it, even though he was trying as hard as he could to protect his cookies. I'm sure he was trying harder than he ever did in the past, filled with a lonely fear that drove him forward, that crippled his ability to trust and care and left him sick with grief. Interesting, isn't it? How where Hollyberry left her kingdom for parts unknown, it was still able to flourish--and yet Dark Cacao, manic in his efforts to do everything he could to protect his cookies and the continent of Crispia from an impossible foe--ended up unknowingly being a catalyst for why his kingdom has already started to become ruined.

After all, isn't that why it's the Ruined Kingdom in Ovenbreak? Or perhaps it isn't made clear. But I think that Dark Cacao would have continued to focus on the wall, unknowing of how badly the rest of his kingdom had it. I think he would have continued for months, years... Centuries. All to protect against a foe he's convinced will come, but never might.

Now. With that out of the way. What do they have in common that could link them together?

...

They want to protect their cookies. They love their kingdoms so much that one of them fled because she felt unworthy and the other is willing to dedicate the rest of his grieving days to protecting his against an unknowable threat. And while their kingdoms may be vastly different, while their methods for doing so may not resonate fully with each other, I think...

I think there's something to that shared passion. That resolution. That determination.

And I think it all starts with talk of battling dragons.

#hollyberry cookie #dark cacao cookie #hollyberry x dark cacao #cookie run kingdom #crk #hi enjoy my essay

62 notes · View notes

arcticdementor · 3 years

Link

[This is the fourteenth of many finalists in the book review contest. It’s not by me - it’s by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done, to prevent their identity from influencing your decisions. I’ll be posting about two of these a week for several months. When you’ve read all of them, I’ll ask you to vote for your favorite, so remember which ones you liked. If you like reading these reviews, check out point 3 here for a way you can help move the contest forward by reading lots more of them - SA]

What went wrong in the 1970s? Since then, growth and productivity have slowed, average wages are stagnant, visible progress in the world of "atoms" has practically stopped - the Great Stagnation. About the only thing that has gone well are computers. How is it that we went from the typewriter to the smartphone, but we're still using practically the same cars and airplanes?

"Where is my Flying Car?", by J. Storrs Hall, is an attempt to answer that question. His answer is: the Great Stagnation was caused by energy usage flatlining, which was caused by our failure to switch to nuclear energy, which was caused by excessive regulation, which was caused by "green fundamentalism".

…

Before reading this book, I thought flying cars were just technologically infeasible, because flying takes too much energy. But Hall says we can and have built them ever since the 1930s. They got interrupted by the Great Depression (people were too poor to buy private airplanes), then WWII (airplanes were directed towards the war effort, not the market), then regulation mostly killed the private aviation industry. But technical feasibility was never the problem.

Hall spends a huge fraction of the book on pretty detailed technical discussion of flying cars. For example: the key technical issue is takeoff and landing, and there is a tough tradeoff between convenient takeoff/landing and airspeed (and cost, and ease of operation). It’s interesting reading. But let’s return to the larger issue of nuclear power.

Nuclear power started off well; “the cost of nuclear plants was decreasing by about 25% for each doubling of capacity in the 50s and 60s”. Then, in 1977, Jimmy Carter established the Department of Energy. Costs immediately skyrocketed, and never came back down. It’s hard to briefly convey the regulatory issues because it’s death by a thousand cuts.

…

Why is regulation so crippling? The public is wrongly terrified of nuclear energy, but they shouldn’t be. Radiation killed 0 people at Fukishima; the radiophobic evacuation killed >1000 (“Some 1600 of the evacuees died from causes ranging from privation in refugee camps (notably loss of access to health care) to suicide”), and the tsunami/earthquake killed >10000. Hall quotes an estimate from the Guardian that Chernobyl - by far the most serious nuclear disaster - killed “approximately” 43 people.

Why are people so terrified? Hall says we were a victim of our own success from World War II. Before the War, America was an individualistic nation. Then came the Depression, the New Deal, and most of all the War. America won the war with a “completely centralized bureaucratic government structure” - and it was a huge success. And for a while, that worked: the generation forged in the war had a “cooperative “same boat” spirit” that “[made] the centralized corporate structures work.” But then it didn’t. Hall blames the hippies:

“The Baby Boomers—my generation—split into two cultures which, as far as I can see, not only didn’t agree on values but which fundamentally couldn’t even understand each other. Ask any Boomer what was the greatest, most pivotal event of 1969. Half of us will say the Apollo 11 moon landing. The other half will say Woodstock. Both sets, hearing the other’s opinion, will emit an honestly uncomprehending “Huh!?!?” From the Fifties to the Seventies, the average American followed the lifecycle of Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt from conformity and cooperation to non-conformist rebellion in a search for personal meaning. The corporate state worked with the cooperating, self-sacrificing Greatest Generation. It didn’t work so well with Aquarians.”

His theory, basically, is that the next generation - the Baby Boomers - got spoiled. Automation had come into its own, and people didn’t need to struggle for survival anymore. America was on top of the world, and there weren’t enough real challenges to work on. But people need challenges. So they made some up.

Hall says the most damaging strain, still common today, is “green fundamentalism”, the idea that human agency over nature is fundamentally bad. An early example is Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which got DDT banned on the grounds that it was causing cancer; in reality the cancer increase was from smoking, and from technology improving living conditions (the healthier you are, the more likely you’ll survive long enough to get killed by cancer). “The Green religion has essentially superceded Christianity as the default religion of western civilization, especially in academic circles”. Hall is dismissive of climate change, citing an estimate that it will cost only a few percentage of GDP by 2100 even in the worst case. (This is something that always confused me; there’s such a big gap between quantitative economic estimates of climate change and qualitative ones. My impression is the quantitative ones are way too optimistic. Hall does not agree with me). Anyway, he says, climate change is all the more reason to embrace clean nuclear power and flying cars (highways use a lot of land; if flying cars replaced highways, that land could be returned to nature).

The upshot is there is strong intellectual skepticism about increasing energy usage. As government has taken much more centralized power, “we have let complacent nay-sayers metamorphose from pundits uttering ‘It can’t be done’ predictions a century ago, into bureaucrats uttering ‘It won’t be done’ prescriptions today.” As a result, “a lot of inventiveness and engineering resources got shifted from doing new things, and doing things better, to doing the same old things, usually not as well, but using less energy.” Our machines use less energy, but they don’t work any better. Is single-mindedly improving efficiency really the best use of our time? And anyway, the efficiency gains - while real - are basically on the same trendline as they were before all this regulation. The difference is that we used to have efficiency *and* more energy every year; now all we get is efficiency. The twin tragedies are that so many talented people went into activism instead of engineering, and that the activism was so often opposed to progress.

…

Hall blames public funding for science. Not just for nanotech, but for actually hurting progress in general. (I’ve never heard anyone before say government-funded science was bad for science!) “[The] great innovations that made the major quality-of-life improvements came largely before 1960: refrigerators, freezers, vacuum cleaners, gas and electric stoves, and washing machines; indoor plumbing, detergent, and deodorants; electric lights; cars, trucks, and buses; tractors and combines; fertilizer; air travel, containerized freight, the vacuum tube and the transistor; the telegraph, telephone, phonograph, movies, radio, and television—and they were all developed privately.” “A survey and analysis performed by the OECD in 2005 found, to their surprise, that while private R&D had a positive 0.26 correlation with economic growth, government funded R&D had a negative 0.37 correlation!” “Centralized funding of an intellectual elite makes it easier for cadres, cliques, and the politically skilled to gain control of a field, and they by their nature are resistant to new, outside, non-Ptolemaic ideas.” This is what happened to nanotech; there was a huge amount of buzz, culminating in $500 million dollars of funding under Clinton in 1990. This huge prize kicked off an academic civil war, and the fledgling field of nanotech lost hard to the more established field of material science. Material science rebranded as “nanotech”, trashed the reputation of actual nanotech (to make sure they won the competition for the grant money), and took all the funding for themselves. Nanotech never recovered.

Flying cars didn’t have the same issues; they were being developed privately. But regulation doomed them. Harold Pitcairn was almost successful in developing a flying car, but then in World War II the government nationalized his helicopter patents (they promised to give them back after the war, but reneged) and he spent the rest of his life in court. He won, 17 years after his death. Bruce Hallock had a promising design, but he sold a plane to a missionary group in Peru and was arrested as an “arms trafficker”. Robert Fulton had a successful prototype, “however, Fulton’s financial backers had become discouraged with the seemingly endless expense of meeting government production standards, and they withdrew their support.” Molt Taylor “was actually in serious negotiations with Ford as late as 1975 to have the Aerocar mass-produced. The monkeywrench was thrown into the negotiations by the FAA and the DOT. Taylor already had an airworthiness certificate for the Aerocar, granted by the CAA (predecessor of the FAA) after a delay of 7 years from its first flight. He claims that the agencies turned thumbs down on the Aerocar ‘because everybody would have one, and we couldn’t handle the [air] traffic.’ Airplane regulation has only gotten stricter: “The entire F.A.R. / A.I.M., which every airman is responsible for knowing, is 1085 pages long. At least it was in 2013; a new one comes out every year.” So in the end, we have none of these technologies. No flying cars, even though they were prototyped almost a hundred years ago. Some nuclear energy, but crippled, aged, feared, and hated. 3D printing, but no nanotech. No level 5. Because the state needs legibility, and progress is not legible. The bureaucratic incentives are to calcify. If no one does anything new, no one will do anything wrong.

…

The book is 550 pages long, so there’s a lot I didn’t cover. I thought the political/social analysis was its weakest aspect, basically a strongly worded but conventional version of the libertarian case against regulation, although I appreciated the detailed examples of how regulation harmed flying cars and nanotechnology (And I’ll admit I haven’t heard the libertarian case against funding science before!). I’m more convinced than ever that not embracing nuclear power was one of humanity’s worst mistakes (partially because I’m more afraid of climate change than Hall is). I found the book most valuable as a statement of “definite optimism” - a concrete vision of attainable yet extraordinary technological progress. I recommend it on that basis.

#read the whole thing #book review #where's my flying car?#j storrs hall #substack

6 notes · View notes

swordoforion · 3 years

Text

Orion Digest №15 - Revolution vs. Imperialism in the Formation of Federation

Discussion of principles and tenets can only carry us so far - inevitably, if we are to change the world for the better, we must turn out thoughts to the implementation of theory. Due to the range of political climates and economic systems throughout the world, there will be a variety of strategies for bringing about change in each individual nation, but there are a few basic, universal ideas that we can strike at.

World federalism implies the existence of a world federation, and the less strict the requirements are, the more cooperative the nations of the world will be in joining said organization. However, if you try to be more specific with what is permitted within nations, and approach a more practical and moral level of regulation, less receptive countries will back out, refusing to cede over authority. You can always give up there and either not pursue federation or ease up on requirements, but compromise in the face of climate and humanitarian crises is not an option we should entertain.

The formation of a world federation, in practice, would likely see only a few nations joining if we go towards the stricter side of the spectrum - a group of nations that are directed to reduce their environmental footprint and implement or represent democracy in both economy and government, as well as protecting fundamental human rights. To truly accomplish the goal of human rights being protected and the implementation of democratic economy, the entire world would need to be part of such a federation (or at least, the entire industrial world). So the question becomes then how we would deal with non-member nations, especially ones that do not stand for their citizens.

The obvious answer, at first, is diplomacy - any conflict can be avoided with proper communication, though the level of understanding that communication involves can be incredibly difficult to obtain due to biases and confusion. If we could negotiate with other nations without compromising our principles, we could likely build our world federation with some compromise and collaboration. If there is a diplomatic solution to things, it should always be our first priority to take it.

Beyond that, if we should seek to make our federation complete, we would need to expand to include other nations to ensure protections, which is where we reach our chief moral dilemma. Imperialist nations in the past have attempted to conquer territory and other peoples through warfare and excessive force, which has resulted in the destruction and exploitation of cultures and populations. Today, warfare is used as a tactic for entities to acquire resources at the expense of innocent civilians and pre-existing government structures - the final and most vile expression of capitalist and nationalist greed is to take from others no matter the cost.

At the same time, our goal in the creation of a eco-centric and socialist world federation is to ensure, as always, the survival and prosperity of humanity, which means that all of humanity must have inalienable rights and that we are directed on a path that allows Earth to recover and saves us from certain extinction. In this potential divide, where we have a world federation up against industrial superpowers and non-democratic nations, leaving them be would abandon our central goal, and would leave the problems we face only half-solved. And if there are people who still suffer and a planet that is still dying, halfway is not good enough, and it will never be.

We cannot give up until we accomplish our goal, but we also cannot allow ourselves to subscribe to the same barbaric imperialism that has brutalized large swathes of the world and ended millions of lives. But war is not the only lesson history has to teach us, and it remains the best teacher, for if we truly want to establish a federation that benefits the people, we can play to the strengths of the common citizen as well.

Some of the most impactful and formative events of the last few centuries have been revolutions. A revolution, by definition, is the "forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favor of a new system", and is typically done by the distressed citizens of a nation who have become dissatisfied with their respective system of government, and wish not to make changes through the natural process of governing but through quicker and more decisive action; the abolition of the system entirely as opposed to gradual modification. Some revolutions are of a colony trying to gain independence, however, others consist of a nation revolting against the government itself, with the goal being unfinished until a new system is put into place.

Revolutions are bloody, especially depending on the temper of the rebels and the defenders, but the morality of a revolution is much different. In a war, one can separate themselves from the enemy, because they are a different people, a different culture - they are alien, and so we can tell ourselves the lie that it is not immoral to kill them, to take what they have and destroy their will. It's still a lie, as they are our fellow humans, but one that is easier to swallow. But a revolution pits you against your people - can you bring yourself to devastate your own land, to destroy your own citizens? The government no longer has all of the country behind it, for it has to contend against its own strength, divided.

A moral leader will not use such excessive force against their own people, though moral leaders can often be in short supply. The revolution is often in the name of the people and the country, a form of restoration as opposed to simply having a foreign entity impress themselves onto the nation. So while still a war, it is one that is much harder to fight from a moral stance on the part of the defender. On the other hand, for the people, revolution can be considered a rallying cry - if common people are standing up against the government, they will be likely to make changes that benefit other citizens, using revolution as their engine of change. Depending on the previous state of their nation, such an upheaval may easily garner sympathy and support from those who feel solidarity with the revolution.

Returning to our thought experiment, in a world where a progressive world federation has established itself and is facing several nations that refuse to come to the terms, war may not be a moral option, but if the citizens of said nations were to decide for themselves to bring about change, it would potentially avoid many of the problems of imperialistic conquest - expending the resources of the burgeoning federation, providing fuel for nationalist rallying, alienating the nation towards the victor, etc. Instead, if they decided to revolt and establish a system that agreed to the conditions, they could join the federation and benefit from the shared resources and coordination. In the case of such a revolution, the greatest weapon of a federation would not be the capacity to make war, but to choose a specific side to support.

The important thing about cooperating on a international scale is that it must be voluntary, but the desire to unite does not depend on the governments of Earth; it depends on the will of the people. And if we are able to provide an offer of mutual prosperity, of protection, both social and economic - it will be an offer appealing to citizens of other nations, and whether through diplomacy and democracy, or a more assertive demonstration of their interests, those people will decide for themselves whether to take it.

- DKTC FL

1 note · View note

bluerosesburnblue · 4 years

Text

Pffffffffffffff alright. I’ll fully admit that KHUx is a flawed product, gameplay wise but it’s not... unsalvageable? Like I think I’ve pinpointed what its exact problems are while I was buying a LOT of medals thanks to the Re:Mind special draw deal

Gonna be drawing a lot of comparisons to Pokémon Masters, which does its gacha element surprisingly well (though the mercy pulls are... arguably just as bad or worse). And honestly, the Masters devs are some of the best mobile devs I’ve ever seen? They are so responsive to feedback and just <3 thanks, DeNA

Medals

The medals are... by far the biggest flaw in KHUx (an issue when it’s the core of your gameplay), though most of that is the power creep setting in now that the game’s been running for almost four years. That being said, the medal system would be improved exponentially if it cut down on one element: randomness

Now, it’s theoretically possible to cut down on randomness already; traits are offered for sale in the Moogle Shop. For 5000 Gems Each (1000 for VIP Exclusive). For the record, a 3000 Gem pack is worth $14.99 USD. That would net you all of 3 VIP exclusive traits. For $15. That’s fucking robbery like what??? Getting actual use out of duplicate draws should not be behind a paywall that steep

So, some possible ways that I came up with to cut down on the frustrating aspects of traits are:

When rolling for traits, make it so that you are unable to roll a trait that is already on the medal, since effects don’t stack (RIP my KH3 Phil that only had Poison Resists on him for a long time)

When rolling for Spirit Traits, make it so that you are unable to roll a trait of a lower value than what is already on the medal (If I roll Poison Resist 60% I should not be able to roll a Poison Resist 10% or, say, any Paralysis or Sleep Resist any lower than 60% either)

Even eliminating a few traits from the possible pool would lower the frustration greatly, while also increasing the value of drawing duplicate medals. Speaking of drawing duplicates...

There is rarely linear progression of medal power. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s look at Pokémon Masters. Every time you draw from the gacha, there is no real “waste” to it. Once you scout a member to your team (the gacha draw)... that’s it! You’ve got ‘em! Some team members are better than others, but there’s no “here’s a character who’s identical to this other one but better.” Drawing a duplicate character will increase the level of their special Sync Move by a stage, up to five levels. Once you get five levels, drawing a duplicate gets you a Power-Up Item of whatever tier the duplicate you drew was. These can be applied to any character of that tier to boost their stats, and 20 applied to a character raises their tier. Basically drawing duplicates only makes the characters you already have stronger, no downsides

And they’re also really good about the free characters! People said “hey, we really like these guys but we’re kinda bummed that we can’t level up their Sync Moves because they aren’t in the gacha” and DeNA went “oh, okay! How about we revamp the type-specific training events so that they hand out tickets that you can use to buy those level-ups? And, since the event offers extra experience to characters of that type, you can level them up while getting the powerup! And we’ll even throw in a lot of really cheap items for those tickets in the shop so that if they don’t have their level cap unlocked, you can do that, too!”

It’s... beautiful~

Meanwhile, in KHUx... I’ve been screwed over by duplicate draws countless times. They’re really only good for traits, and as discussed above, those are so random as to be near useless 80% of the time. And woe to the poor soul who finally gets perfect traits on a medal only to draw a Boosted version of that same medal, with no way to get that boosted medal to the same trait level and no way to get that medal with the perfect traits the boosted status

Progression of power is important in games. Like, really important. Some genres can get away with it (most roguelikes, I’d wager) but I dare say most gamers aren’t into that. Therefore, I propose the following:

Either give us the ability to carry traits over from one medal to another (ex. if you use a medal with traits on it to level up another medal of the same type, you can select any or all of those traits and have them applied to the medal you’re leveling up) OR allow boosted medals to transfer their boosted status when used to level up a medal of the same type (so using a Boosted KH3 Lea with no traits to level up a normal KH3 Lea with full traits will give you a Boosted KH3 Lea with those full traits)

If you really won’t let us do either of the above, then at least let 7 Star medals act as Guilt/Special Attack Boost dots on 6 Star medals. Seriously, they count for traits but not Guilt Dots? Why? Why is the more powerful version worse than the lower level one? I have so many 6 Star boosted medals that I can’t really get to 7 Star because for some reason drawing the 7 Star version is more common and Mickey & Brooms are a limited resource

Similarly, nothing sucks more than finally applying enough Chip & Dales to hit the cap only to draw a boosted version of the medal, so let us transfer over attack and defense boosts and cost decreases when using a medal with those stats to level up a different one

Skills being transferred from one medal to another with no preset skill should have a 100% success rate. Also, any maxed out skill should have a 100% success rate to overwrite so that you don’t lose those precious attack boosts with GA reducers or Lux boosts

Trait Medals should just be eliminated like... god. What a waste. If you have to keep them, make them Moogle Shop exclusive or something but they were really the start of KHUx’s unplayability for me

Boost the power of the Nova Attack. Why does it do so little? It should be on par with a medal

Just... Just bring back guaranteed mercy pulls, please. If I’m pulling on a Rage Form banner, I want Rage Form. Not “any of the following 20 medals, all of which have the same draw chance and Rage Form is in the list, I guess.” If you’re handing out Trait Medals with every draw, at least give me the medal they can be used on!

The new Draw Point deal is, really, a decent start to salvaging medals and I like it a lot. I’ve never gotten a bad deal from it (bless my boosted KH3 Nami <3). But as you’ll see below, there’s ways to make racking up those draw points less tedious

Finally, as it is now, managing medals takes way too long. Some UI and functionality tweaks could go a long way to cutting down the tedium of the management

Just let us roll multiple traits at once I don’t even know why I have to ask for this why won’t you just let us roll multiple traits at once???

Pulling up a medal’s summary should have a Sell button, probably right around where the “Share” and “Remove” buttons are, to eliminate constant jumping between menus to get rid of a single medal when you literally have it right there but they won’t let you sell it unless you find it in the separate sell menu

Medal Summaries should also have an icon, like in the Album, that indicates if you’ve ever acquired the Nova or Full Nova bonus with a medal from that line. I have so many really low-tier medals in my inventory because I don’t know if I have their Full Nova bonus unlocked yet and flipping between the inventory and the Album is a huge pain

And below are just a few scattered tweaks that I’d like to see and would make the medals more bearable but like... aren’t super necessary?

Who do I have to fight to reorganize the Album so that 7 Star medals are listed next to their lower level versions or at least add the option to have them listed in that order?

Magic Mirrors are way too rare just... if merging duplicate medals will only take the one up to a certain percentage until it gets stuck (like stuck at 117% out of 125%) instead of maxing it out (which it SHOULD do) then at least make Magic Mirrors more common

Can we uhh... stop giving out 2/3 types of Cids? Three levels of Cids is excessive and wouldn’t even be an issue if they’d put medal stacking in earlier. Now they’re just redundant. I get so many Cid 10s that anything lower is a waste of inventory space. And even if normal Cids are theoretically useful to new players, if we stop handing them out and only hand out Cid 10s then they can get into the events easier

At the very least, put them next to each other when sorting. Like... sort the utility medals by function and not “date we added them in.” Cid 10s Should be next to Cids and Cid 5s. Huey & Dewey & Louies should be listed with the other type-specific level medals. Same with Chip & Dales. Blue Fairies should be listed with the Star Increase medals like Yen Sid and the Fairies, followed by the Dual Meow Wows that boost things into Supernova or Supernova+. The Valentine’s Chocolates should be next to the Magic Mirrors... the subslot medals should be with the other utilities and not at the top of the fucking list like??? Their sorting system regarding the utility medals SUCKS

The good news though, is that now that the subslot medals are stackable and easier to obtain, there’s less having to rearrange subslots every time you sell an old medal. That’s nice. Small victories

Difficulty

I’m not convinced that anyone at BitGroove playtests this fucking game (and... reminder that KHUx is outsourced to BitGroove and isn’t a Square-Enix internally developed and managed game. Square just does writing, music, and PR mostly)

Proud Mode’s a damn disaster. I’m gonna fight whoever decided to make the objectives “complete all at once” with one objective always being a time limit, some so excessively strict that you can only do it with insanely specific medal combinations. Some of the restrictions are nigh-impossible with the game setup. I will also fight whoever keeps putting the restriction to Random-Target only while they simultaneously refuse to give us good Random-Target medals. There’s no good buffs. There’s no good attacks. If that’s the restriction, you’re just kinda fucked. Same with “10+ Hits Only” and similar. And nearly all of the time you’re locked into a horrible Keyblade for the stage (use Bad Guy Breaker, which has multipliers for all medal types, on a stage where every enemy reflects Power medals! And it’s Random-target only! And restricts you to 5 medals!)

The final section of The Keyblade War is almost completely unplayable. I get it, the Foretellers are supposed to be super-strong, but this is a major story event. It should be beatable for free-to-play users! Even the whales were struggling! Like, holy shit!

I get why it’s like this. They want to try and convince people to pay real money for good medals. Thing is, that kind of greed does the opposite. People are more willing to give money to products that they were already enjoying for free. When people feel like they’re forced to pay, like say, to beat a story event, they’re going to be more likely to hold onto that money because they’ll feel like you don’t deserve it

Again, let’s compare to Pokémon Masters. When people complained that the EX Challenges (necessary to get gear to boost your stats) were too hard, DeNA went in and lowered the difficulty. Now the fanbase is happier and more people can enjoy the challenges, while also unlocking items that benefit higher-level play. People complained that the Mewtwo Legendary Event was too difficult at harder stages and too grindy to max Mewtwo out. Both of the legendary events since then have had lower difficulty and requirements, and they’ve announced that the Mewtwo event is already getting a rerun with similar tweaks. Now more people can enjoy a strong character that they can get completely for free!

DeNA really spoils us

But they’re also a study in how making the game more accessible both increases playerbase and player spending. Go on the Subreddit for a bit and see how many people said “I bought Gems for this Scout deal because I feel like DeNA’s doing a good job and I wanna show some support!”

So, really, KHUx needs to rework their difficulty

I think the biggest thing that needs reworking is the defense mechanic (if a medal’s strength is lower than an enemy’s defense, then it only does 1 damage). Even if it was changed so that your strength being lower than the enemy’s defense only halves the damage you deal, that’s still a vast improvement

Proud Mode needs to be refocused so that Keyblades and Medals allowed are beneficial to the challenge. That increases strategy based around what a player has instead of requiring them to have very specific medals, possibly even with specific traits

Just... get rid of the “complete all at once” mechanic in Proud. I’d rather run the level three times doing a different objective each time than run it 20 times because I keep somehow missing one (usually the time limit)

Enemies absorbing certain types of attacks or reflecting certain types of attacks is fine so long as we’re warned beforehand. In the mission select screen, just put in a section like “Enemies may have the following: etc.” with the icons that indicate the effect in it

Given the amount of gems needed to upgrade Keyblades, they should be much more common to get for free. Monthly Gem Missions are actually way too hard so lower the difficulty and increase the gem rewards

Relatedly, let’s lower the grinding needed in Union Cross, thanks. I really loved being able to knock out all rewards in 1-2 bonus time sessions. Now? Even if I was there for every bonus time I still wouldn’t be able to clear all the rewards. That’s... absurd. This is a mobile game, not a full-time job. Like, they increased the grinding when they added in the speed-up function for Union Cross, but they increased the needed grinding way too much

I do appreciate they they’re adding things like gems and subslot medals as rewards for Union Cross, though, but it’s pointless if no one can actually get a decent amount of them

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, that’s just my list of tweaks that KHUx could do to make itself better. I originally wasn’t going to post this since it really feels like KHUx is on life support, but now that Dark Road is being added as part of the package I feel like its lifespan got extended enough that it’s worth saying this stuff, even if I highly doubt anyone at BitGroove’s gonna see or care. And that’s sad, because I really want this game to be good. I want it to be fun again. We all know we’re just here for the story, and I think once they recognize that this game is just a vehicle to tell that story, then quality might improve.

DeNA knows their fanbase is just here for more interactions with old, beloved characters so they focus on that. Some get whole story events to themselves, everyone you recruit gets a spotlight episode, the story is literally just an excuse to get characters from all across the franchise interacting with each other with the occasional OC to facilitate things

I feel like the KHUx devs over at BitGroove just... don’t actually understand the appeal of the game they’re working on, and it’s a real shame

Let’s hope Dark Road doesn’t end up the same (Though given that BitGroove’s only two games are KHUx and Final Fantasy All the Bravest I uh... I’m not getting my expectations up because they clearly don’t learn)

(Also, bring the seasonal events back every year? Why wasn’t there a rerun of the Halloween quest this year? Please stop locking medals and accessories behind the VIP “for paying players only” missions that’s so fucking rude and coercive. Give the Sewer Squad names so that I know who’s talking in any given event! And please just give me a rerun of the Chirithy accessories please I want head Chirithy so bad)

#kingdom hearts #khux #kingdom hearts unchained x #kingdom hearts union x #hi i'm liz and i analyze mobile games way too much for my own good #pokemon masters isn't a perfect game i just really respect and appreciate dena's response to feedback #and dedication to improving the game #of the three games i play with any regularity (khux-hphm-pokemon masters) pokemon masters is by far the best managed

28 notes · View notes